Maeul danim
the Cultural Connector between the Village and the Heart.
Two new institutions would join the CPI program in 2019. Maeuldanim designs diverse cultural projects for local communities, whereas the Research Institute of Multiculturalism, Sejong University, plans cultural events and conducts research for multicultural families. Lee Hyangmi, a representative of Maeuldanim, which aims to train cultural professionals for the vitalization of local communities, introduced their plan in the CPI program this year.
Please introduce the activities of Maeuldanim and your plan
for the Cultural Partnership Initiative this year.
Maeuldanim is a developer of travel and cultural contents based on local cultural resources by way of designing fair travel plans, training local travel managers, and developing local cultural contents. Traveling is an important means, not a goal, of cultural exchange. The recent period has become a threshold of cultural exchange, especially when everybody travels on a regular basis. Maeuldanim has a philosophy on travel culture as a humanistic resource, considering traveling as a way to provide individuals with an opportunity to be themselves rather than to objectify them.
The title of Maeuldanim's project in the CPI program is Eokkaedongmu (which means "putting arms around each other"): The Cultural Connector between the Village and the Heart. As our title implies, we focus on activities that interlock different cultures. Our project involves a process where participants can design and manage culture-connecting projects in diverse genres and, eventually, realize the value of linking cultures just like cultural partners putting their arms around each other.
What do you look forward to and want to achieve the most in the CPI program this year?
We want to build a genuine relationship with our participants as if they are "the best gift in our lives," as in the lyrics in Taejina's song "Partner.", who is one of the famous Korean singers. We hope to establish a relationship where we can be the best gift to each other through the process of finding diverse common grounds for interactive cultural relations. It is also important to respect differences by having a flexible mind that goes beyond the framework of rigid principles.
We look forward to seeing our Eokkaedongmu model beyond the CPI program becoming a culture-connecting model in diverse fields. As such, the CPI program will be an opportunity for growth for both Maeuldanim and our participants this year.
Maeuldanim had participated in the Cultural Partnership Initiative as a cooperative institution of the Guro Cultural Foundation. However, this year, Maeuldanim is starting its own project within the CPI program. Are you expecting any difference in terms of the project's outcome?
Since 2017, Maeuldanim has been designing and managing the program in collaboration with the Guro Cultural Foundation. It is unique that we have some experience in the project even though we are a new participant this year. This is why the project title, Eokkaedongmu: The Cultural Connector between the Village and the Heart, is the same as last year. We cooperated with the Guro Cultural Foundation from the beginning stages of program to increase the value of peace culture and cultural diversity by facilitating local cultural resources.
In 2019, Maeuldanim aims to play the role of an independent cultural organizer in the private sector for a better cultural exchange. Maeuldanim could expand our voices in the cultural realm within our local community, thanks to the Guro Cultural Foundation, which serves as our supporter. We hope to contribute to the growth of our participants in Eokkaedongmu just as how the Guro Cultural Foundation has supported us. Hence, we expect an expanded scope of our outcome compared to our previous projects.
You are planning to invite all the participants from Vietnam. Is there any particular reason for this?
Vietnam was the first target country for the CPI program in collaboration with the Guro Cultural Foundation. The country shares a similar cultural background and history with South Korea such as the Confucius culture, war, and colonization. In this context, we would like to reconsider the meaning of local culture that our society ignored or rarely recognized during the time of economic development by looking into the case of developing countries such as Vietnam. To this end, Vietnam was selected.
Eokkaedongmu is an ongoing project that the CPI alumni will also take part in as last year. As a result, the Eokkaedongmu Scholarship Association in Vietnam (tentatively) was established by the participants in 2017 and 2018. The year 2019 will be an important year for us because the cultural ODA project can be developed into an independent, local-based cultural exchange in private sectors during this period. We would love to apply our Eokkaedongmu model in Vietnam to other ASEAN countries.
The CPI program aims to promote mutual cultural exchange. Given this, please share with us if you have any special program planned.
The process of understanding each other is necessary for cultural exchange between South Korea and Vietnam. Vietnam is not only a favorite tourist country of South Koreans but also has an active exchange of human and material resources such as international workers and migrant women through international marriages. However, it is true that we do not understand each other's culture well.
In this sense, Maeuldanim will adopt diverse attempts for better cultural understanding by organizing the Eokkaedongmu Joint Planning Committee, which includes both our participants and the public. Workshops and cultural events for cultural exchange will serve as a basic step to increase mutual understanding by offering a venue for representing their own specialties.
The project, <1020○○○> , organized by the Eokkaedongmu Joint Planning Committee, will propose a new way for cultural exchange. We hope that this can be an opportunity for the participants to learn what it means to work together.
